Cotton-seed drier.



H. C. & N. C. ELLIS.

COUON SEED DRIER.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT-12. 1914.

' 2&1.

Patented Aug. 20, 19181 2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

H. C. 8!. N. C. ELHS.

COTTON SEED DRIER.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 12, 1914.

Patented Aw. 20, 1918,

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

UNITED STATES PATENT oEEIoE.

HUBERT c. EL Is AND ivo MAN c. EL Is, or EvANsToN, ILLINOiSl, ASSIGNORS 'roELLIs DRIER AND ELEVATOR COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION or WISCONSIN.

COTTON-SEED DRIER.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Aug. 20, 1918.

Application filed September 12, 1914. Serial No. 861,340.

To all whom it may concern: 1 v

I Be it known .that we, HUBER'r C. ELLIS and NORMAN C. ELLIS, residents of Evanston, inthe county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented new and useful Improvements in Cotton-Seed Driers,-of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The invention relates to apparatus more particularly adapted for dryingand cooling cotton seed.

Atteinpts have been made heretofore to dry cotton seed. in apparatus embodying a series of vertical shafts and adapted for drying hard grain, suchas corn, wheat or the like, but it has been found that apparatus constructed for hard grains will not handle cotton seed owing to the fibrous na ture ofthe latter which causes the kernels llOf adhere together in a shaft instead of passing freely therethrough by gravity as hard grain does. 7 j

One object of the invention is to provide a dried which is adapted to handle cotton seed or similar material and which comprises shafts which are constructed so that the seed will pass therethrough by gravity, the seed being dried and cooled in transit through the shafts. In practice, we have discovered that if these shafts are made slightly flaring from the top to the bottom that it is possible to handle cotton seed in them by gravity.

A further object of the invention is to provide means which will properly control the flow of cotton-seed through the shafts and which may be varied or regulated so that the seed will be properly dried, and

. cooled if desired, in transit through the shafts, the period during which the seed is subjected to air blast in the shaft, determining the degree. of moisture removed therefrom.

This object means at the lower or outlet end of the shaft for positively displacing or separating the lowermost kernels from those in the shaft and delivering them to discharge openings from which they freely fall by gravity.

A further object of the invention is to provide a drier of improved construction which is particularly adapted for handling material such as cotton seed.

is attained by providing In the drawings: Figure l'is a vertical longitudinal section of a drier embodying the-invention. Fig. 2 is a section taken on line 2 2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a detail section on an enlarged scale taken on line 33 of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a detail of one of the eccentrics for operating the displacing rack. Fig. 5 is a detail horizontal section showing the manner of connecting the uprights to the channel bars at the ends of the shafts.

' The improved drier comprises a series of vertical shafts 10 formed to hold the cotton-seed in a columnar mass. The sides of these shafts are formed by sheets of foraminous material, such as screen-cloth 11. Be tween the seed shafts, transversely extending pairs of supply ducts 12 and similarly extending exhaust ducts 14 are alternately disposed. The supply ducts 12 serve to conduct a blast of air to the sides of shafts 10 and the exhaust-ducts conduct the air, after it has passed through the cotton seed in the shafts,out of the drier. The arrange ment of these supply and exhaust ducts is more fully set forth in Letters Patent No. 921,097 to Wynn E. Ellis. These ducts l2 and 14 are formed by extending plates of metal across the space between two shafts, thence vertically at one side to form the side wall for one duct, thence across the space to the other side, thence vertically to form a closed side adjacent the shaft at the other side and so 011, thus forming or dividing the vertical spaces between the shafts into ducts or flues, opening alternately into the grain shafts between which the plate is arranged.

This construction and arrangement of the ducts causes the air-blast to enter the sides of the shafts through the screen-cloth 11 and to passthrough the seed in the shafts and thence upwardly and downwardly through the shafts and seed therein, to the exhaustfiues above and 'below the supply flues. The sides of the grain-shafts are formed by angle-iron columns or standards 15 to which the screen-cloth, and plates 16 which fill the gaps between these standards are secured.

The invention is illustrated as applied to a combined drier and cooler in which the seed in the upper portion of the shafts is receives a blast of hot air from a suitable source of supply, such as a blower, is con nested to on end: of he ri er PQ P h rier to cpsdu he bla t t 4 11. he supply ducts 12 in the upper portion of the drier. An inlet trunk 20, which receives cold air blast from a suitable supply, such as a blower, is connected to one end of all the supply-ducts 12 of the lower portion of the apparatus which is used for cooling the seed. The ends of the supply-ducts 12 opposite the ends which are connected to and receive airfrom the inlet trunks, are closed by plates 21, so that the blast will be forced to pass through their open sides and into the shafts 10. The ends of the exhaustfiues, adjacent the inlet trunks are closed by plates 22 so that the blasts will escape only through the opposite ends of these ducts after having passed through the seed in the shafts. The parts forming the shafts and ducts and the standards 1 5"are secured on a frame 24 formed of channel iron.

The pp en s of shaft a e en a in communication with a garner 25 above the shafts. The lower ends of the shafts are also open except fora bar 26 disposeda short distance below the terminal of each of the shafts. In practice, it has been found that cotton seed will not flow regularly or controllably through the shafts haying parallel sides of screen cloth and to overcome this difiiculty the shafts are flared slightly from the top to the bottom and this has'been found in practice to be important in treating cotton-seed and to give very satisfactory results.

Bars 28 are secured at the upper ends of the spaces between the shafts, and the sides of these bars are flared downwardly as at 29, to prevent choking of the seed after it passes betweensaid bars. A recip rocable,

rack 30 comprisingsidebars 31 and a crossbar 32 for working above each bar 28, is slidably mounted on rollers 33. Deflectors 34 direct the seed over the sidebars 31 to the grain shafts. Defiectors35 are used over the flues atthe lower corners of the garner. Back 30 is reciprocated by pitxnen 36which e v nlle tcl tQ' QQIL IiC rap -(3 0, adjustable eccentrics 38 on a shaft 39; The adjustable connections between the eecens tries 38 and shaft 39 each comprise an e c,-

centric 40 which is keyed to [said shaft and has notches 41 in its periphery anda keypin 42 adapted to lock ,eceentric 38 to the eccentric 40. By adji stment of the connec tions between eccentrics 38 and. 40, the stroke or throw ofthe 30 may be varied to regulate the feed of seed to the shaft. CliOSs-bars32 of the feed rack are mounted to move over the fiigedbarsj28 and their reciprocations, the seed in the garner will be shifted and agitated so that it"will gradu ally pass into the spaces between bars 28 and into the shafts 10. These. reeiprocable racks serve as feed-means for causing the seed to enter the shafts 10.

A rack 42 is. mounted below the shafts 10 and comprises side-bars 43' and c fosg bars 4.4, one above each bottom-bar26Q These side-bars are mounted on rollers 45. Pit- Inen 4f), which are pivotally to rack 42, are connected by eccentricstraps 47 to eccentrics 48 which are adjustably connected to a drive-shaft 49. The adjust: able connections between eccentrics ,48-"Tand shaft 49, each comprise an eccentric 50 which is keyed to shaft 49 and "is provided. with notches 51 and a key-pin '52 whereby the eccentrics 50 be lockedtdether. By adjustment of these conne ctiohstlie stroke or throw of cross-bars 44 may -bevaried to regulate the displacement and discharge ofseed from the shafts 10'; Drive shafts 49 and 39' are driven one fr o m the other; 15 a pulley 54 on shaft 49, a belt 55 and a pulley 56 on shaft '39. Itwillbe understoetl that one of the shafts 89, 49*will be driven from a suitablesource of power. Shaft49 is mount} ed in bearingssustained by bars 57 and, shaft 39 is similarly mounted on bars i A The rack-bars o' ma g' ver the bottQm a s 2 n nd r th -s Sha 0 displace the seed fromfthe lower end of the Sh ts t th ar d opnings, b tw e the bars 26 without causing the" seedto become Pa k d in th ft and W t e si 'g' y lickin e th s e A pi lfi fn w he s ed dis a d se t eshefi a i QPQ 'WQ BYBI .63 abdu ts th se to a sa ge spoi 6,2:

operation of the improved drier will be follows: Assuming the garner b Supp ied wi h c t on see to b dried" haft d 9 o. be dri a fi'si i able peed, e] rec procating cross-b rs. .3 61? rack 30 working over bars 28 will feed the seed in measured quantity into the shuits 1 0. The seed will fornfa"colntaretiyly loose l mnar mes ii'th $1. 'I and n r ns t her t r gh wi lf Subje ted we. ast of a r r m t unk 18, he has Passing. i to he sha ts hrou h he open; id o th s pplyr u ts (13,1; y r icelly hmug the Stack Or mass g s ed and 140 the exhaust-ducts 14. After beingdried the hotblast in the upper portion efflthe,

and speed of the rack bar 42, the period during which the seed is treated may be varied according to the moisture in the seed or the degree of moisture it may be desired to re move therefrom.

The invention thus exemplifies an apparatus which is adapted to handle cotton seed in large quantities and in which special provision is made for preventing the cotton seed from becoming packed 0r choked in the grain shafts. Themechanism for controlling the discharge of the seed from the shafts and consequently the period of time during which the seed is subjected to air blasts may be regulated.

It will be understood that, if desired, the cooling arrangement may be omitted.

The invention is not to be understood as restricted to the details set forth, since these may be modified within the scope of the appended claims, without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In apparatus of the character described, the combination of a series of transversely extending vertical shafts formed to hold material in a columnar mass and provided with continuous foraminous sides flared from top to bottom to adapt the shafts for the passage of cotton seed, transversely extending supply and exhaust ducts between the flared sides of the shafts, and

' means for controlling the flow of material through the shafts.

2. In apparatus of the character described, the combination of a series of transversely extending Vertical shafts formed to hold material in a columnar mass and provided with continuous foraminous sides flared from top to bottom to adapt the shafts for the passage of cotton seed, transversely extending supply and exhaust ducts between the flared sides of the shaft, bars below the shafts and means for displacing the material laterally from the shafts and the bars to control the flow of the material through the shafts.

3. In apparatus of the character described,

the combination of vertical shafts formed to hold material in a columnar mass and having screen-cloth sides, spaces being formed between the shafts, means dividing the spaces into transversely extending supply and exhaust ducts, means for supplying air under pressure to the supply ducts, the sides of said shafts being flared from top to bottom to facilitate passage of the mass through the shafts and means for controlling the flow of material through the shafts.

at. In apparatus of the character described, the combination of vertical shafts formed to hold material in a columnar mass and having foraminous sides, spaces being formed between the shafts, means dividing the spaces into supply and exhaust ducts, means for supplying air under pressure to the supply ducts, the sides of said shafts being flared from top to bottom to facilitate passage of the mass through the shafts and means for displacing the material at the bottom of the shafts.

5. In apparatus of the character described, the combination of vertical shafts formed to hold material in a columnar mass and having foraminous sides, spaces being formed between the shafts, means dividing the spaces into supply and exhaust ducts, means for supplying air under pressure to the supply ducts, the sides of said shafts being flared from top to bottom to facilitate passage of the mass through the shafts, feed means at the top of the shafts, and means for controlling the flow of material through the shafts.

6. In apparatus of the character described, the combination of vertical shafts formed to hold material in a columnar mass, means for supplying air under pressure to the shafts, means for controlling the flow of material through the shafts, comprising bars below the shafts and separated from the lower ends thereof, openings being formed between the bars, and means operating in the spaces between the bars and the lower ends of the shaft for displacing the material from the shafts into the openings between the bars.

7. In apparatus of the character described, the combination of vertical shafts formed to hold material in a columnar mass, means for supplying air under pressure to the shafts, means for controlling the flow of material through the shafts, comprising bars below the shafts and separated from the lower ends thereof, openings being formed between the bars, a rack operating in the spaces between the bars and the lower ends of the shafts for displacing the material from the shafts into the openings between the bars and power-driven means for operating the rack.

8. In apparatus of the character described, the combination of vertical shafts formed to hold material in a columnar mass, means for supplying air under pressure to said shafts, a feed rack disposed adjacent the top of the shafts, a garner above the shafts and displacing means at the lower ends of the shafts for controlling the flow of material through the shafts.

9. In apparatus of the character described, the combination of vertical shafts formed to hold material in a columnar mass, means for supplying air under pressure to said shafts, a reciprocable rack disposed adjacent the top of the shafts, a garner above the shafts, power-driven means for operating said rack, means for varying the throw of the rack, and ineans at the lower ends of the shafts for controlling the flow of material through the shafts.

10. In apparatus of the character described, the combination of vertical shafts formed to hold material in a columnar mass, means for supplying air under pressure to said shafts, feed means disposed adjacent the top ofthe shafts, a garner above the shafts, displacing means below the shafts, anda driving connection between the feed- ID621118- and the displacing means.

11. In apparatus of the character described, the combination ofvertical shafts:

mi n 14 formed to. hold material in a columnar mass, means fol-supplying air under pressure to said shafts, a rechprocable rack disposed adjacent the top of the shafts, a garner above the shafts, a reciprocable displacing rack at the lower ends of the shafts, mechanism for. operating said racks, and means for adjusting the throw, of said racks by, said mechanism.

HUBERT C. ELLIS. I NORMAN C. ELLIS. \Vitnesses: Y

MILDRED STU PF,

KATHARINE GERLACH.

(1091:: of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by, addressing the Commissioner 0! Patents,

Washington, D. (3;! 

